I am a student at Los Alamos High School and I would like to say some things concerning the “walkout” that occurred Wednesday. I was in class, and then at noon almost half my classmates walked out and began their protest. I did not participate.I have nothing against the protest or the protesters. I am writing about the lack of knowledge of the people in this town have about the Constitution of the United States of America. I quote Lt. Ney when he said, “We respect the students’ constitutional right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.” The truth of the matter is that students hardly have any constitutional rights at all. If we look at this “walkout” and apply it to the Tinker test, we will find that all the students who walked out are not protected at all.Tinker, a student at Des Moines High School, decided to protest the Vietnam War. He and his sister, along with others, decided to wear black armbands with peace signs to protest. This was against the school dress code. They suspended Tinker. He appealed to the Supreme Court, which decided that his speech was silent and did not materially disrupt the classroom. This has been the test to decide cases like these. If applied here, you will find that the students did in fact disrupt the classroom. Worked was stopped the teacher took names.The so called “punishment” is, in reality, nothing. An unexcused absence is nothing more then being out of class with an excuse. It might cause your grade to drop one little point, but unexcused absences can become excused with one call from a parent. However, under the school rules, this act is punishable by out-of-school suspension. You will find this under Code of Conduct on page five of the school handbook. The violation is “interfering with the educational process.”Finally, I ask one question. Where does the administration stand on its own policies, because apparently the superintendent thought “it was a good thing that they can express their feelings in that way and i thought it was okay”? Where do they stand on there own rules?Ian ZollingerLos Alamos